letsgure it out your self...
why do we run 400 meters?
why 800 meters?
where did those numbers come from? there is no symetry in 400 or 800. why are the tracks we run on 400 meters? where did that come from?
was there some sort of change?
at some point the distances we run shifts to 1500, 5000, 10000. where does that point of change start? why might it start there?
if your french theory is right does it explain why we run 400s and 200s and 800s? if not does it support the theory?
get back to us.[/quote]
If you think about the reason for 400 meter tracks is fairly simple: You want to make the track a generally circular shape, or oval, or elipse or whatever you want to call it because that's symetrical, simple, and efficient.
Therefore it would have to have 4 lengths two straightaways and two turns. I guess they could have made it one big circle, but then times would probably be slower, and also the track would have taken up a bigger space. They possibly could have made it 150 meter straights with 50 meter turns, but thats not good either. So 400 meters makes perfect sense for the length of a track, thus validating the distances of 400 and 800: one lap and two laps. The mile also makes sense because it is a classic distance, 1000 steps by the Roman soldier (or maybe English). Perhaps they made it 1500 because a mile is a little more than 400 meters and thus not as symmetrical around a track. And of course, a 1600 is just halfway, and its not either so that sort of just sucks. So I guess they just adopted the 1500 after the French used 500 meter tracks for these reasons.